Two firms submit bids to conduct reuse studies on Somerset power stations

Thursday

Aug 7, 2014 at 9:47 PMAug 7, 2014 at 10:08 PM

Town officials and residents say they're still concerned about power generation and tax-base issues

Michael Holtzman Herald News Staff Reporter @MDHoltzman

SOMERSET — The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, charged by law with accelerating clean energy usage, is evaluating two recent bids by Boston consulting firms to help Somerset assess possible reuses for its floundering power plants.

The process follows legislation to provide at least $100,000 each for Somerset and Holyoke to determine “the potential reuse of sites of retiring coal-fired electricity-generating plants,” says the MassCEC’s request for proposals.

State officials informed Somerset about the availability of these funds one year ago.

On June 27, the deadline, Meister Consulting Group and Ninigret Partners submitted lengthy proposals that are now under consideration, according to MassCEC and town officials.

“I think we have good proposals on hand,” MassCEC Director of Government Affairs Robert Fitzpatrick told The Herald News on Thursday.

He said those two firms and a third one submitted proposals for Holyoke, which his 5-year-old state agency will evaluate separately.

He expects one will be chosen, not necessarily the same consultant for both communities.

No date for awarding the bids has been set, while a Somerset committee, coordinated by Town Administrator Dennis Luttrell, gathers input to submit to the state agency on the two proposals.

“We are very committed to this being a cooperative process between the consulting and municipality,” Fitzpatrick said, stressing MassCEC would manage the firm chosen and ensure citizen input into a public dialogue.

State officials created the unique agency in 2008 to work in partnership with local and international clean energy companies, investors, researchers, developers, businesses and residents.

Its success can be measured by Massachusetts “installing hundreds of megawatts of wind and solar systems,” reads the MassCEC website introduction.

It has more than 50 staff members, headed by CEO Alicia Barton, and funds reuse assessments like Somerset’s through a Renewable Energy Trust Fund paid by private and public utilities, including the ratepayers.

Comparing Somerset and Holyoke, a MassCEC fact sheet states: “The communities are facing different challenges, and it is expected that the reports for each will reflect more analysis on the areas of interest to their situation.”

It also says more than $100,000 could be funded if needed.

“We’re now in the process of providing feedback in regards to their qualifications and approach to what they submitted,” Luttrell said of the bids.

He declined to state his personal reactions to proposals of about 80 pages each. “I’m just going to deliver the consensus of the group,” he said.

Both Brayton Point, the 1530-megawatt coal and gas-fired power plant planned for closure in mid-2017, and the former Montaup/Somerset Station, a 160-megawatt and coal and oil-fired plant closed 4½ years ago, were recently purchased by separate companies.

Neither owner has announced any redevelopment plans, and tax revenues from the properties have plummeted.

Additionally, ramped-up state and national initiatives to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and resulting health impacts have resulted in the closure of many fossil-fuel-powered plants.

Coal-fired operations at Salem Harbor in Salem closed in June, and Mount Tom Power Station in Holyoke has stopped producing electricity and is slated to shut down in October. Brayton Point, meanwhile, announced its intention to close in June 2017.

At a Somerset Economic Redevelopment meeting this week, members familiar with the process and proposals weighed in and expressed concerns.

“We’re just looking for the highest and best use of creating revenue,” said James Burke, who chairs the Economic Development Committee.

That’s because the town’s tax revenues from Brayton Point dropped to about half of the $12 million to 13 million in annual revenue under its latest tax agreement, and will soon be about one-third.

“The red line for us is that natural gas be considered as an option,” member Lloyd Mendes said.

“It has to be,” echoed Burke.

Both noted the limits of significant power generation from solar and wind energy to replace Brayton Point’s 1530 megawatts, where valuable transmission lines will remain in place.

In a lengthy email Mendes sent to Burke a month ago, when MassCEC issued prospective RFPs, Mendes wrote, “One of three (CEC) principle goals is to encourage adoption of ‘clean energy projects including solar, wind, biomass, and water and organics-to-energy technologies.’”

“So it may be less interested in high-tax-paying but non-clean-energy proposals for Somerset such as natural gas-powered electricity generation,” continued Mendes, a former federal government employee in Iraq and the Middle East who assisted regions and countries to advance their economic development.

Luttrell, during an interview Thursday, said when MassCEC conceptualized the RFPs before the two companies responded, his committee issued “eight pages of comments to a two-page proposal.”

“They (MassCEC) made one minor change to it, and we picked it apart,” Luttrell said. He declined to be specific.